Monday, March 14, 2011

This is yet another tragedy caused by modern evangelical churches (Roman Catholic and Orthodox should certainly pay attention too) who stopped teaching the Bible to their congregants, loading them up instead with self-help tips, lessons from big business consultants, and greeting card sentiments.

That irresponsibility opens up a Pandora's Box of confusions, errors and outright heresies. Like socialism. So check out the corrective offered by Ryan Messmore of The Heritage Foundation and James Rose of the American Christian History Institute.

Messmore: "What we found is that a lot of young evangelicals have a good passion about caring for people in need and we want to say 'Amen' to that passion. The problem is that that passion is often directed in bad policy initiatives and approaches."

Messmore says many young evangelicals interpret God's call to help those in need as providing more government assistance and redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor."What we're trying to argue is that if you really care about poverty, if you really understand what poverty is, it's not just material in nature," he says. "It's not just a lack of money or finances that the government can come along and meet. Given who we are as human beings, we have a wide range of needs -- and a true approach to helping people in need takes into account all of those approaches."...

Historian James Rose says socialism is an "unbiblical" idea of man and government that has become very popular with many Americans. Rose, founder of the American Christian History Institute, says many Americans are welcoming European-type socialism as a model for the United States. Rose points to the biblical story of Israel when the nation cried out for a king to rule over them instead of God. When God responded to their request, he told them their king would "take" from them all that they had -- an early example of socialism, Rose suggests.
"Socialism is a false, deceitful view of man and government. It seeks to do things to people while it undermines individual responsibility and private capital," he explains. "This view of man and government appears to offer safety and security and to supply our needs and wants, [but in fact] it makes the individual more and more dependent on public policy and less and less able to be independent and self-governing."

The Institute's president explains that socialism "thrives" when people are afraid and insecure. He points out that the consequences of the system are more government control, less independence, more public property, less private property, more taxes and fees, and less saving. In contrast, Rose says that the character of self-government is productivity, diligence, and more local care with less national control.

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